ABOUT HIJAU is GREEN

"Hijau" is a Malay word which means "green". This blog entitled HIJAU is GREEN is an outlet for me to post articles and opinions on issues affecting development, the environment, education, labour and society. My name is Faezah Ismail and I am a journalist from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Email me at surveypeopleplaces @ gmail.com

guardian.co.uk carried an article last Sunday (February 7, 2010) about a “new drive by the Chinese government, the World Bank and conservation groups to halt the perilous decline of Asia’s most powerful wildlife symbol”.

It is significant that it has chosen the Year of the Tiger, which begins tomorrow, to launch the project.

The fate of the tiger does not look at all promising as Chinese around the world greet the Lunar New Year with fireworks and partying tonight.

A new WWF report — entitled Tigers on the Brink: Facing up to the Challenge in the Greater Mekong — has unveiled alarming news: the global wild tiger population is at an all time low of 3,200 — down from an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 during the last Year of the Tiger, in 1998.

The report notes that tiger populations in the Greater Mekong — an area that includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam — have plummeted from an estimated 1,200 from the last Year of the Tiger to about 350 today.

China has also been badly affected.

Jonathan Watts of guardian.co.uk reports that the South China tiger, which has not been seen for many years, is feared to have followed the Bali, Caspian and Java sub-species into extinction in the wild. In the country’s north, the population of the Amur tiger — which can grow to three metres in length and 300 kilograms — is estimated at 18 to 22.

Malaysia reports the same sad tale. There are only about 500 tigers (Panthera tigris malayensis) left in Malaysia, a sharp decline from an estimated 3,000 in the 1950s.

The decline is due to habitat loss, rapid economic growth and poaching for tiger body parts for Chinese traditional medicine.